When I first began praying about what to write to tell you about “my faith” I thought I needed some sophisticated story on God’s plan for saving us; His way to keep us from spending eternity in hell. I prayed and prayed about what to write, with an urgent desire that what I wrote would be easy to understand so that everyone reading this could KNOW Jesus and KNOW they were going to heaven.
Then after our Pastor’s message last Sunday and during my prayer time the next morning, the Lord “spoke to my heart” and let me know I was to share with you the exact same way that I asked Jesus to be my Savior.
This then, is my story when I was just a little girl … only 5 years old and what my Sunday School teacher told me that first made me realize that I “wanted Jesus in my heart.” How to get to heaven is so simple that even a 5 year old child can understand what to do, and that is exactly what I’m going to share with you.
One day in Sunday School, my teacher, Mrs. Edgerton, passed out a pocket-sized book to each of us. I have always loved books and all things little, so I was immediately intrigued.
Mrs. Edgerton told us to open our little books. When we opened them we saw that both the left page and the right page were colored solid red, there were no words. Mrs. Edgerton told us to imagine that these pages were like our hearts, our hearts were red, just like the pages in the little book we were holding.
However, she continued, sin is a word that describes things that we do that are displeasing to God, or when we are disobedient to His rules in the Bible. Mrs. Edgerton said that no matter how hard we try to “be good” … we could never be perfect and we do things that make God unhappy.
She went on to explain that every time we thought about something that was “not nice” or we disobeyed our parents, or we didn’t share, or we were unkind … all of these things were sin and made God sad because we had disobeyed what He said to do in the Bible. She told us that sin is like the color black and when we do things that displease God, black begins to cover our red hearts until they are covered with black and full of sin.
Mrs. Edgerton told us to once again turn the pages of our little books. I was horrified to see that the next 2 pages were all black! She said that sin covers our hearts until our hearts were like the pages in our little book … all black!
She went on to explain that our hearts could become like brand new again and washed “white as snow” if we told God and Jesus how sorry we were for all the things we had done wrong and if we asked Jesus into our heart.
Then she told us to turn the pages of our little book, again. These 2 pages were white as snow! Oh, how my 5 year old self wanted my heart to be white again, as I listened intently to my teacher!
She said only Jesus could “wash away” our sins and the blackness from our hearts! She said all we had to do was to ask Him to forgive us for everything we had done that was displeasing to Him, tell Jesus how sorry we were, and ask Him to make our hearts like new and white as snow!
Oh my … that sounded easy! I was always trying to do the right thing and it always hurt my “little heart” whenever I knew I had done something that displeased my mother or father, but that day I was especially sorrowful knowing I had done things that made Jesus and God unhappy.
I left Sunday School that day troubled and pondering about my “black heart” and what I needed to do to “fix it.” I worried about it all week long and kept thinking about each of the pages in my little Sunday School book … red heart, black heart, white heart. Oh, how I yearned for my heart to be white!
Then, 7 troubling days later, our family was once again on our way to church. I remember vividly the street we were on and where I was sitting in the backseat of our 1963 Buick station wagon when I suddenly blurted out tearfully, to the astonishment of my parents …“I don’t want my heart to be black any more, I want my heart to be white as snow! I want Jesus in my heart!”
My Daddy was driving and my mother turned around and looked at me gently and told me in a loving tone …“Honey, if you want Jesus in your heart, all you have to do is ask Him.”
My mother then asked me if I believed that Jesus was God’s Son; did I believe that Jesus had died on the cross for all the things I had done wrong? I certainly did! Then she said all I had to do was to tell Jesus how sorry I was for everything I had ever done that was wrong and ask Him into my heart, then He would be with me forever!
What?!? A week of misery and torment and it was as easy as that??? Right then and there, I got down on my knees in our station wagon and asked Jesus into my heart.
Oh my goodness, it is now 58 years later and I still can not write or talk about this without my eyes and heart brimming! That day, with a rubber car mat gauging a mark into my knees and feeling the hump of the floor console rubbing against my left leg, I put my palms together in prayer and told Jesus how sorry I was and asked Him to come into my heart.
After my prayer, I can still remember “the glory that flooded my soul” … and how I felt like I was all clean and sparkly! I felt like a brand new penny!
My mother didn’t have to tell me! My Sunday School teacher didn’t have to tell me. I KNEW and could tell my heart wasn’t “black” anymore! I could “feel” that my heart was “as white as snow!” Jesus was “in my heart!”
Words from a song “In the Presence of Jehovah” say … “something happened and now I know, He touched me and made me whole.” Something did happen that day 58 years ago; Jesus forgave my sins and my life has never been the same! AND … I have the blessed assurance that someday I will be in heaven with Him … with my father … with my mother … with Mrs. Edgerton … with my husband … with our children … with my brother and sisters … with all my family members … with my friends … with everyone throughout the ages that has loved Jesus and told Him how sorry they were and have asked Him into their heart.
Now … God made the way to heaven and eternal life with Him in heaven so simple that even a 5 year old can understand and do it. It’s as simple as the A-B-C’s! Below, I have written the instructions, or the “ABC’s”, on how you can know Jesus and spend eternity in heaven … with a corresponding Bible verse that tells us what we must do to be forgiven. I want you to know that what I am telling you is not just what I believe … it is what God said, in His Word, the Bible!
A – ADMIT – admit that you have sinned (done things that are displeasing to God) “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
B – BELIEVE – Believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son. If you believe in Him, you will not perish but you will have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
C – CONFESS – Confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead after He was crucified and you will be saved. “… because , if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9
This is most important thing I will ever write or share with you in my blog. When I accepted Jesus Christ’s gift of love and forgiveness, I was also given the assurance that I will live forever in heaven with Him, after my life here is over; you can have that assurance too!
Oh my goodness, my heart is full. I hope you know that it is my earnest desire and prayer that each person reading this will be filled with a longing and desire to accept Jesus as your own Savior, if He isn’t already your Redeemer and Friend. Please write me if you have any questions about this, or if there is anything you would like me to pray about with you, or for you … and most importantly, if you have or want to ask Jesus into your heart!
Most sincerely and prayerfully,
From my cottage to yours ~ Trenda
Cottage Green on the Lake 